NORTH CAROLINA -- Lawmakers are back to the drawing board after two shutdown-ending plans failed on the Senate floor. At 34 days, the shutdown is already the longest in U.S. history.

• The GOP proposal, which fell 10 votes short, included money for the president’s long-promised border wall in exchange for three years of protections for the Dreamer population.
• House Democrats are preparing a plan with increased border security funding, though not necessarily wall money. Senate leaders are also meeting behind the scenes.
• Butterfield says roughly 7,000 of those impacted federal workers live in North Carolina.

The GOP proposal, which fell 10 votes short, included money for the president’s long-promised border wall in exchange for three years of protections for the Dreamer population. Dreamers are participants in the DACA program who arrived in the United States illegally as children.

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis was among those voting in support.

“I think it’s a genuine attempt to get the dialogue started,” Tillis said during an interview Wednesday. “President Trump is prepared to sit at the table and come up with a reasonable strategy for broader issues of immigration reform, and I for one want to support him.”

The Democratic plan, which also failed, would have opened the government for a few weeks without funding the wall. It garnered more ‘yes’ votes than the GOP proposal, but still fell eight votes short.

Similar legislation made it through the Senate without objection before the Christmas holiday.

How did North Carolina’s senators vote on the two shutdown-ending plans?

Both of them voted in support of the GOP plan, which included wall funding. On the Democratic plan, Tillis voted ‘no.’ Sen. Richard Burr did not vote at all, though his office said he would have voted ‘no.’

So what’s next?

After weeks of little movement, Thursday did bring perhaps one good sign. Lawmakers appear to be talking.

House Democrats are preparing a plan with increased border security funding, though not necessarily wall money. Senate leaders are also meeting behind the scenes.

After the two votes failed on the Senate floor, President Donald Trump appeared to offer somewhat of an assurance about negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles Schumer.

“If they come to a reasonable agreement, I would support it,” he said.

However, with wall money likely to remain a sticking point, this log jam could very well continue.

The shutdown’s impact hits home

As the fight continues, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are sounding the alarm.

“This is a national emergency, these are family emergencies all across the country,” said Rep. GK Butterfield, D-N.C.

On Friday, roughly 800,000 federal employees will see a second pay day come and go without receiving a penny. Butterfield says roughly 7,000 of those impacted federal workers live in North Carolina.

Local governments are also feeling the pinch.

The mayor of Mooresville, N.C., who was in D.C. to attend this year’s Conference of Mayors, was unable to meet with the Department of Transportation about possible grants for road projects back home. The DOT is among the federal agencies shut down.

“That’s very unfortunate and that is an impact on our ability on the local level to connect folks we need to in Washington,” said Mayor Miles Atkins.